


Quarantine Cuddles

by Starbuck09256



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Season 2, firewalker, post ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 03:33:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20717405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbuck09256/pseuds/Starbuck09256
Summary: They had to spend an entire month in quarantine after the events of Firewalker. How did that work? What was their relationship like? She had just gotten back from Duane Berry and now she is faced with Mulder in a confine space for 30 days.





	Quarantine Cuddles

Season 2 after firewalker

AU 

Day 3 of Quarantine

She has nightmares, she doesn’t talk about it but she whimpers in her sleep and squeezes the life out of her pillow. When she was gone, he had slept for maybe an hour each night waking in a cold sweat with her screams ringing in agony in his head. Today we argued about the validity of mutant animals specifically turtles. Apparently the small tv in our quarantine room only has 5 channels and at 3pm if you can’t take any more Jerry Springer you can watch 4 suped up turtles train to be ninjas to save the world. It’s awful but they both secretly love it. It’s now a set date for both of them where they stop whatever they are reading or working on to come and sit right next to each other and watch for 30 minutes. 

“I’m just saying it’s probable Scully, that you could create something similar to super turtles, remember the flukeman?” 

“God, how could I forget? Mulder you think that 4 turtles would honestly listen to an oversized old rat for directions?” 

“If he could teach you how to fight like Bruce Lee wouldn’t you take instructions from a giant rat?” she chuckles and nudges his shoulder, her smile lingering on her lips.

He now realized just how much he has missed her. He isn’t even slightly mad to be stuck with her for a whole month. It’s like the universe wanted to make up for the months she was gone to him. Giving her a whole month without a way to escape from him. He is cherishing it, like he should have cherished her more. The rest of their day is uneventful they have realized fast that all their chess games end in a stalemate. Always equally matched intelligentically. Scully is not great at checkers but wipes the floor with him at poker. As they get ready for another night in the steril beds he watches her get ready. He never thought she was someone who took long to get ready and in general she isn’t. He has called her up in the barely dawn to be at her door to pick her up in 15 minutes and she always looks like she wakes up with an unwrinkled suit with makeup perfect ready to take on the government conspiracies and flukemen of the world. He now realizes she pampers in the evening. She takes long baths and puts on several different creams. Did you know there is a specific cream for your left elbow? He’s not sure there is but there seems to be that there might be. Tonight he hears her tossing and turning her voice a hurried terrified whisper “no, let me go.” he bites his lip hard. He wants to pull her into his arms tell her she is safe with him, even though he is the only reason she has ever been endangered in the first place. He hears a muffled scream and can’t take any more of it. He’s at her bedside crawling into the bed pulling her into his arms.

“Scully it’s ok, it’s Mulder you’re safe I promise.” she is so far in her dream she doesn’t wake to being shift awkwardly into him. 

He brushes his lips across her forehead letting his hand touch her back underneath her shirt. She stills and molds herself into him with a heavy sigh. 

“Mulder,” another deep breath.

”Yea it’s me Scully I got you,” her head gets tucked under his chin. 

Her leg moves in between his and his hand snakes around touching her side. His other hand around stroking her back lovingly. Her sighs deep and even as she falls back into a deep sleep against him. He kisses her hair ready to move untangle himself from her. Her weight on him is so calming. She fits perfect across his chest. Of course she would he sighs so contented to have her here. He chuckles when he thinks of her as a spy, she is beyond loyal so full of integrity it's sometimes sickening. He means to move, he had the best intentions crawling into her bed with her. Not to be a creep or make her uncomfortable in any way but to help her sleep. Her soft snores are like the best white noise machine and suddenly it’s late morning 10am even. He slept for a full 9 hours and she is looking at him with a soft questioning gaze and a deep red blush. 

“Hi” he says shifting his muscles aching from the full rest he’s received. “You umm were having a bad dream and I” he stammers as she shakes her head. 

“It’s ok Mulder,” she detangles from him. “god I haven’t slept that good in ages” she whispers sitting up and stretching. 

He blushes a deep red he hasn’t either. He feels incredible like he can take on the world and not need the black sludge to ever grace his lips again.   
“Mulder it’s 10!” she looks shocked and he can’t help but laugh.

”I guess we really needed some rest after the last..”  
“Year?” she supplies laughing. 

“You can sleep anywhere Scully, I’ve seen it.” she laughs shaking her head.

The day goes on like any other and at 3pm she sits a little closer to him. 

Day 7  
They’ve been arguing over changelings. Scully has been shaking her head a lot but laughing too. Her nightmares haven’t been nearly as bad and part of him is sad that he hasn’t had another excuse to hold her in the dark night. But tonight she falls asleep against his shoulder while watching Star Trek and he’s a terrible person but he shifts to have them both sleep on the small uncomfortable couch. She wakes in the middle of the night Mulder curled behind her snoring softly into her shoulder the tv buzzing with the latest hair plugs for 69.95 plus shipping.   
“Mulder,” she whispers his arm tightens around her and he nuzzles her neck.

“Mulder, we can’t sleep here.” she shifts slightly. 

“Humm I like sleeping with you.” he voice thick with sleep. 

God she should rethink this, they work together they just got the x-files back. But his breath is warm and soothing against her neck his arms adding just the right amount of weight to help her fall asleep fast. They need to find out what they did to her. She can’t remember anything past Duane Berry dragging her up that hill. Mulder screaming her name. She has made a full recovery, the only thing that even feels different is the months she missed the length of her hair and Mulder. He is different, when she came back he looked so rugged and tired. Her mother had told her how little she thought he slept, how he became physically ill when he saw her tombstone. This couch will hurt them both more if they stay on it. It’s not comfortable like his nice black leather one. She untangles herself from him. Pulling him up and dragging him to his own bed. 

“That couch is too small for you, come on back to bed.” 

He wakes his eyes groggy.   
“Scully?” 

“Hi” she reaches out touching his face. “We fell asleep on the couch,” she says touching his cheek.

He is still groggy. “Sorry,” but his eyes sparkle a little more than normal and he has a smirk that kind of says he’s not sorry at all but he’s trying to keep it professional. 

She huffs nothing about this has been professional. They’ve been left completely up to their own devices getting shipments of food every week and doing weekly blood tests. Nothing out of the ordinary. All traces of her supposed branch dna gone, both of them healthy-ish. She moves as he settles into the bed already starting to drift off he mumbles “Stay.”

Shifting slightly so she has room to lay down next to him. This is a bad idea Dana she tells herself. Jack and Daniel, her always trying to prove something to the older men in her life that she is strong capable and everything they ever dreamed they could want. It’s not like that with Mulder, she might need to prove the science but not herself. For thinking she was a spy he certainly didn’t seem to believe it for very long. 

He might challenge her and question her beliefs but his respect for her opinion and thoughts are uncomparable to everyone she has ever had to work with he’s engaging, curious as to her viewpoint and while he doesn’t agree he certainly listens just like she does. Is this worth sacrificing all of that? She bites her lip turning to leave. She has grown to not just admire him but love him as well, he grabs her hand softly. 

“Please stay Scully,” his eyes shine to her with comfort and nothing more. 

He has no expectations of them shedding clothes throughout the night, no malice in his eyes of what happens tomorrow or the next day. He isn’t one to judge her for her choices, for he was one of them. She pulls the covers back and lies down. His sighs full of content as he pulls her close to him. She wonders what happens tomorrow when she wakes up. 

Day 13   
Did you know you could sleep next to someone and not have sex with them? It might be a novel concept but that is what has happened much to her dismay. She thought she was making the choice clear to him that she would be ok with it all. But as they lay again together on her bed this time snuggled up close all clothes intact it’s stifling. She worried so much about a morning of regret from him about how they shouldn’t and it wouldn’t happen again to discover that it didn’t even happen in the first place. That they have honestly just found comfort in being next to each other holding and touching but never kissing or more. She wants to kiss him, to show the level of appreciation she has for them coming to this god forsaken mountain in the first place. 

Day 18  
She’s going to kiss him, she has come to realize that he won’t make this jump despite the fact that 2 days ago he accidentally brushed her lips instead of her cheek. Muttering apologies for overstepping and a nervous chuckle to try and end the awkwardness. They had gone back to normal and as she made him a sandwich and he proclaimed she would be the best wife ever her mustard skills in creating the perfect ratio apparently being the top thing a man looks for in a wife. Her chuckling nervously because now she realizes she would want to be his wife which is a far jump for someone who hasn’t even bother to kiss that person. Maybe that had been her problem before showing the physical side first to lure men into her web to prove her intellegicenal prolace after the fact. Not realizing they never cared about it in the first place. Not like him, Mulder cared, Mulder wanted someone to challenge him, he craved it, demanded it and when you couldn’t stand up to those high expectations he could and would utilize it to prove a point. They both fell in love with each others minds first which in itself makes the love story all the more fantastic. 

Day 19  
He’s been holding out as much as he can, but she is letting him experience a life so calm and full of love that he isn’t sure he wants to go back to monsters and ghosts. He wants to live in the bubble they’ve created of perfect afternoons of cartoons and cards. Of mornings with coffee in bed and crossword puzzles. He knew she was brilliant and kind. But now he is seeing her for the amazing women she is outside of an office. Outside of the web of FBI, he’s seeing Dana and he is enthralled.

Day 20   
She feels so brave knowing what today is for them. She wants to shift everything wants to have his hands on her tonight not as a companion to fight off demons but as a lover to fight off sleep. She’s readying herself for battle taking extra care, it’s hard with the limited supplies she has available to her here in quarantine. But she has been making little strides to test the waters, small experiments to see if her hypothesis is correct. That he is enamoured with her like she is with him. She’s touched him carelessly, her gaze lingering on purpose to see what he would do. He laughs and lets his fingers linger on her too. Their eyes meeting in agreement, like when they have the takeout menus spread across the desk after late nights of paperwork. She is ready but she is still afraid, he is passionate beyond reason and most likely this will consume both of them, but the fear and the risk thrill her. 

Day 30  
His breath and voice are warm against her bare back. Like his kisses were the night before and again this morning. 

“Our little bubble world is coming to an end tomorrow.” He kisses up her back finding her shoulder blades and lingering. 

“What happens then?” his voice dropped to a whisper as he kisses up her neck finding her pulse points as his hand wanders across her stomach pulling her roughly against him. 

She’s not sure, not sure what happens to the peaceful world full crosswords, ninja turtles, lovemaking and bickering. She doesn’t know how they go back to sleeping alone without the other one to help them fight each other's demons. How is she going to feel at 3pm when she is in another autopsy wondering about mutants and pizza, or late at night about Mulder's body pressing her into a sad tiny couch. How will she focus and how will they go back to being an arms length apart which might as well feel like another planet. She likes this planet they’ve created with it’s silicon life form and them uninhibited in every way with one another.

“What do you want to happen?” she asks turning in his arms to face him.

“Part of me is excited for the change, to be back fighting the darkness with you, to have some decent fucking coffee again. But the other part the bigger part is afraid, afraid that you will withdraw back into yourself like you do sometimes, that these moments will not be repeated in my apartment or in a motel in the middle of nowhere. I would like to be wrong I would like to think that this beautiful place we’ve created is packed to travel with us under all your soaps and creams next to those sexy panties I now can’t stop thinking about.” he chuckles.

“Is it coming with us? Or are we abandoning it?” his voice filled with hesitation she looks at him. 

He kind eyes that sparkle a little in the moonlight, the crease in his brow which fades flat when he comes inside of her. 

“Do you think if they knew they would use it against us?” she whispers. 

Fear mingling with his how much more can they lose to this? 

“Don’t you think they have been?” she bites her lip. 

To bring this home would change so much. She loves a challenge but herself identity has always been consumed by others when she is in a relationship. She likes who she is, finally, she feels defined powerful in her perceived small frame. He gives her that, gives it to her in spades, he values her as an equal not a prize, a companion not a trinket. 

“I think you’re right,” he looks a little shocked and to be fair she almost never utters those words.

“I am?” 

“I think they have been using us against one another for so long we didn’t even know it.” 

“They’ve underestimated you most certainly” he grins at her kissing her nose lightly.

“You’re right about one more thing though.” she lifts up kissing him softly.

“Just one?” she smiles looking into his soft hazel depths. 

“I do have room for this in between the soaps and creams, but I have some far sexier panties you might also enjoy thinking about.” 

He grins the whole flight home, holding her hand and whispering into her ear as the flight cabin lights dim.


End file.
